Iran / Middle East & North Africa

CPJ will be collecting signatures until midnight tonight on a Facebook petition in support of Roxana Saberi, an American journalist who is being held without charge at Tehran’s Evin prison.

New York, March 3, 2009–A spokesman for Iran’s judiciary said at a press conference today that freelance U.S. journalist Roxana Saberi is being held at Tehran’s Evin prison, where political prisoners are routinely detained, according to international news reports. Saberi is an American citizen as well as an Iranian national.

New York, March 2, 2009–The Committee to Protect Journalists called on the Iranian government today to explain why it has held American freelance journalist Roxana Saberi for over a month without revealing her location or charging her with a crime. 

We issued the following statement today after learning that Iranian authorities have been holding U.S. freelance journalist Roxana Saberi without charge since January…

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s economic policies and human rights record drew widespread criticism from academics, activists, and journalists. In response, Ahmadinejad sought to suppress independent media by manipulating government subsidies, exerting censorship, and using the punitive tools of detention and harassment.

NOVEMBER 5, 2008 Shahrvand Emrouz CLOSEDIran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance shut down the moderate weekly magazine Shahrvand Emrouz on November 5, saying that the magazine had breached the terms of its licensing agreement.

Also: See capsule reports on journalists in jail as of December 1, 2008 New York, December 4, 2008–Reflecting the rising influence of online reporting and commentary, more Internet journalists are jailed worldwide today than journalists working in any other medium. In its annual census of imprisoned journalists, released today, the Committee to Protect Journalists found…

Since 2001, CPJ has documented the cases of 340 journalists forced into exile after their reporting exposed them to harassment, violence, or imprisonment. They face many difficulties in their new homes, from language and cultural adjustments to emotional and economic hardships. Here are five snapshots of journalists in exile.

New York, September 5, 2008–Prosecutors should drop all charges against Iranian journalist Adnan Hassanpour, whose death sentence was overturned Thursday, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. A court of appeal overturned the sentence against Adnan Hassanpour, a journalist and former editor for the now-defunct Kurdish-Persian weekly Aso in Iran’s northwestern province of Kurdistan, local…

New York, September 3, 2008–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Iranian authorities to disclose charges against two detained Kurdish journalists or release them immediately. On August 28, security forces arrested Anvar Sa’di Muchashi and his cousin at his home in Sanandaj, the capital of the Kordestan province in northwestern Iran, and took them to…